Last year was the first year I blogged about the World Vision initiative, a night of hope. I found it important, at a time when the children in our privileged world stuff themselves with treats and have fun pretending to experience fear, to remember the ones for whom fear is a daily fact and occurrence.

World Vision has kindly invited me to be part of their yearly Night of Hope Halloween campaign. This year the focus is the Syrian children and we are all invited to carve a heart in a pumpkin thinking of them, write them a letter telling them we care and make a donation to show them our support.

So, here is my picture and my letter:

“Dear little ones,

I am so, so sorry for the hard times we have been having. I am sooo sorry you had to see things you were never meant to see.

If only I could, I would give you all a tight hug. If only I had the power, I would rewind the time and put you back into your homes, along with your parents and siblings. If only I could, I would stop the violence and make your world ok again.

I am a mummy too, a mummy who has lost a precious boy. Not to human meanness, not to war atrocities but to illness.

So I understand pain. I understand sorrow. And I also know what a difference a small gesture of kindness can make in a gloomy world.

I have another child, a four-year old girl who loves children. She has heard about you all and has helped her daddy carve a heart, showing our love for you, into our seasonal pumpkin. I am sure you don’t have the pumpkin habit in your country. You probably feed them to the hungry animals. But here, we use them to decorate our homes. And this year, we will use ours to remember you all, say a prayer for you and send you a small token of our love.

Be blessed, little ones, be blessed with joy and peace and healing!”

If you want to join in the initiative, all you need to do is text HEART to 70060 to donate £5 to help make Syrian children’s lives a little brighter.

See below how you money will make a difference: